


broken threads

by timelxdy



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, One Shot, This is so short I'm sorry, spoilers for demons of the punjab, thasmin, thirteen x yasmin, yaz just needs a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-22 10:31:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16596146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timelxdy/pseuds/timelxdy
Summary: The lights are dimmed in the console room, the brightest of them all now sitting sombre and pensive on its steps.





	broken threads

The lights are dimmed in the console room, the brightest of them all now sitting sombre and pensive on its steps. 

Yasmin Khan was never one for presenting her emotions on a stage for all to see, unlike her sister. She prefers to work through her problems and worries and pent-up feelings solo, if only due to the stubborn streak in-built in her DNA. 

The tears making trails down her cheeks are unwelcome and, frankly, _pretty annoying._ She shouldn’t find herself crying over someone she’d never met; not in the right order, anyway. 

Her travels with the Doctor have been _unbelievable_  so far, but the Time Lord was right when she said that the experience would change them. Every adventure results in loss, and another tear falls from bloodshot brown eyes when she thinks of how much the Doctor must’ve seen, lost and mourned in her many lifetimes aboard the ship. 

It’s the middle of the night, now, or at least she  _thinks so_. It’s hard to tell when they never stop to check the time. Ryan and Graham have long gone to bed, sending Yaz sorrowful looks on their way out. They’d tried their best to help her feel better, bless them, but a quick-witted joke and a laugh hadn’t worked. The Doctor is still tinkering around in the room, having decided space and quiet was what Yaz would’ve wanted. She has a way, somehow, of knowing her better than she even knows herself sometimes. 

When the Doctor has run out of things to mend and improve the new components of the console, she tentatively makes her way over to the spot Yaz has occupied for the majority of the evening. She’s on high alert, ready to back off should her best friend want her to leave, though, when she wordlessly perches down on the step beside her, the other woman doesn’t make a move to stop her. 

They sit in the quiet and the low-light for an hour, but what feels like minutes, until the Doctor finally works up the courage to draw her favourite companion into her hold. She can’t stand to keep watching her gaze into empty space with fresh tear tracks on her cheeks for any longer, both arms curling around her waist to offer the kind of comfort her previous incarnation would never even _contemplate._

Her cheeks dampen the Doctor’s striped top when Yaz leans into her hold, no hesitation on display when she curls her own arms around the Doctor’s shoulders. The crying comes in waves, emotions which she’s kept at bay for too long finally breaking the damn until she’s not entirely sure what triggered it. Once she’s calmed, however, she drops her head to her shoulder and takes a few long breaths. Inhale for six, exhale for eight. Repeat. 

“I’m sorry. I really am. I just - I didn’t expect that to hit me so hard. I never even would’ve met him, but he was such a good man. I’m so - I just feel angry, y’know? That we couldn’t have done anything.” The look on her face makes the Doctor’s old hearts crumble just a touch more. She seems so vulnerable and fragile in this moment, a complete change to her usual confident and optimistic demeanour. 

“No, no.  _I’m_ the one who should be apologising, Yaz. I should never have taken you there in the first place. I knew what it might mean, what it might cost, but I went along with it anyway.”

”Only ‘cause I asked you too, Doctor. You’re way too nice to ever say no, and you know that. Don’t blame yourself.” 

“I know what you’re feeling must be overwhelming; that’s what time travel does to you. It makes you forget to take a few moments to check in with yourself every now and then. So, when you do finally have some time to think, it can get pretty suffocating. All those thoughts, all that emotion. Like a flood.” The way the Doctor describes it insinuates she’s dealt with it many times before, but at least it reassures her she’s not the only one feeling submerged. 

“Is there anything I can do to help in any way?” 

“I think - I think I just want you to hold me, for now, if that’s alright?” 

“Of course, Yaz. That’s hardly a task.” 

So that’s what she does; for as long as she needs, the Doctor simply retains her hold on the woman who’s brought life back into an old soul, right up until shallow breaths even out and long, elegantly curved lashes flutter shut, giving in to the lure of slumber. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading as always!! my tumblr is virtually-noctilucous, if y’all are interested!!


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